General Observations In China
Posted by Scott Calderon on Wednesday, August 18, 2010
I have made some interesting observations over the last week I have spent here in China. First, I have never seen a female smoking cigarettes. I have seen plenty of guys smoking, but no women. I am sure there are some female smokers, but maybe there is an old double standard created by society that women don't smoke or at least in public. Just to be clear I have not seen a single female smoker. None at all. I just thought this was weird that out of all the people I have seen not one female was smoking and a lot of people smoke here. In fact I just read an article in the newspaper that smoking rates are on the rise here in China and the government is trying to stop it.
Second, everything is crowded in China. With a billion people everything should be crowded, right? If you have the idea to go somewhere or do something chances are 1 million other people had the same thought. Getting used to the crowds and how to handle them can be a bit intimidating at first. For example, I was in the subway the other day and there was an old lady waiting in front of me. She wasn't all the way up to where the train doors will open, but I didn't want to cut in front of her because she was old. Plus I didn't want it to be like look at the Westerner cutting in front of the old lady. But 30 seconds later some young local guys come and get right in front of her. You might think that is rude, but in a city crowded as can be you have to fight for everything and take nothing personal. If you give an inch they will take a mile. They are not being rude that is just the way you survive around here. If you let someone else go you might just miss your train and have to wait. Or maybe they will buy the last train ticket for the day. Everything is a battle here, but none of the battles are personal.
Finally, I noticed that there are a lot of young people here in China. Most of the people I see walking around are between 15 and 25 years old. They must have a huge percent of the population within this age range. I also thought it was interesting to see how stylish all of the youngsters are. There are so many different styles going on here from summer casual to full-on formal to punk or social. Most females wear some type of heel here and I have never seen so many dresses before in my life. The only time I have seen females wearing dresses in the US are at formal functions, but here there are tons of females wearing dresses as everday wear. Now they may not be fancy, expensive dresses, but they are by no means cheap and ugly looking. And the fashion sense doesn't stop with the females the males are just as into fashion as ther female counterparts. I just didn't expect China to be so trendy when it came to fashion.
These were just some of my random observations and thoughts about some of the locals and the culture. Anyways I am finding that Americans and Chinese (at least in the big cities) have a lot more in common than you would expect.
Second, everything is crowded in China. With a billion people everything should be crowded, right? If you have the idea to go somewhere or do something chances are 1 million other people had the same thought. Getting used to the crowds and how to handle them can be a bit intimidating at first. For example, I was in the subway the other day and there was an old lady waiting in front of me. She wasn't all the way up to where the train doors will open, but I didn't want to cut in front of her because she was old. Plus I didn't want it to be like look at the Westerner cutting in front of the old lady. But 30 seconds later some young local guys come and get right in front of her. You might think that is rude, but in a city crowded as can be you have to fight for everything and take nothing personal. If you give an inch they will take a mile. They are not being rude that is just the way you survive around here. If you let someone else go you might just miss your train and have to wait. Or maybe they will buy the last train ticket for the day. Everything is a battle here, but none of the battles are personal.
Finally, I noticed that there are a lot of young people here in China. Most of the people I see walking around are between 15 and 25 years old. They must have a huge percent of the population within this age range. I also thought it was interesting to see how stylish all of the youngsters are. There are so many different styles going on here from summer casual to full-on formal to punk or social. Most females wear some type of heel here and I have never seen so many dresses before in my life. The only time I have seen females wearing dresses in the US are at formal functions, but here there are tons of females wearing dresses as everday wear. Now they may not be fancy, expensive dresses, but they are by no means cheap and ugly looking. And the fashion sense doesn't stop with the females the males are just as into fashion as ther female counterparts. I just didn't expect China to be so trendy when it came to fashion.
These were just some of my random observations and thoughts about some of the locals and the culture. Anyways I am finding that Americans and Chinese (at least in the big cities) have a lot more in common than you would expect.